Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to control mink.

George Eustice

The Government is not undertaking any nationwide action to control mink. However, landowners are free to control mink on their land as long as they do so humanely and within the law. Advice on controlling mink can be obtained from Natural England. As a non-native species, it is an offence to release mink into the wild and I would encourage landowners to control them wherever practical.

The Environment Agency is not directly involved in any mink control programmes in England. It does, however, contribute a small amount of annual funding to the Wildlife Trusts and some other local organisations towards the cost of local water vole conservation projects. Some of these projects may involve an element of mink control. The Environment Agency is one of a number of contributors to these projects.